Coyote Predation and the Tsavo Effect

The Ghost and the Darkness is one of the great African-set adventure movies. It was loosely based on the story of two lions that killed and ate dozens 0f workers attempting to build a bridge over the Tsavo River in the late 19th Century. The lions became man-eaters because the imported laborers marginally cremated their dead, leaving the remains in the African bush, where the lions learned to like the taste of human flesh.

Moving to this side of the world, I hunted in Central South Dakota last month in an area ravished by EHD. Whereas alfalfa fields usually held dozens of whitetail deer, not a single animal came to feed. My personal estimate is that the area lost 75 percent of its population, yet other observations were more alarming.

About half of the whitetail does seen on the seven-day trip had no fawns amid an explosion in the coyote population. Since the coyote packs enjoyed an “all-you-can-eat” venison supply from late August until early October in 2012, when EHD finally subsided, had they developed such a taste for venison that their food preferences changed?

Whether fact or conjecture, I’m returning this month and will have the proper coyote licensing and calls to support team whitetail. I encourage you to do the same.